[0.9X.XX] Stealth KO breaks NPC AI, makes them disappear

[drakasin]

Hello, sorry if this has been posted before, but I posted on Steam forums and got no reply and searching for this bug on the forums yielded no results.

First, copy-paste from my steam bug report from November 2017:

Version of Kenshi

- Doesn't matter as the bug has been around for at least a year (I've noticed it last year, stopped playing, recently came back to playing the game and the bug is still here)

- Doesn't matter if you use mods, freshly reinstall the game, stable / experiment branch etc.


What, how, when?

- Whenever you Stealth KO anyone, move away from the area (unload it), and then go back to the area, the NPC is no longer present

- For example (in the attached savegame below) - I've Stealth KO'd almost every Holynation guard in Rebirth and every single one of them has disappeared. When hovering over the name of the town (Rebirth) on World Map, the characters seem to no longer be residents of Rebirth as the count of Current Residents has dropped to about 6 (some few remaining guards I haven't KO'd but rather trained my Martial Arts on). I can't find these NPCs anywhere. So can't say if they just wander out or if they disappear from the game completely. Though I seemed to notice a small squad of sprinting holy sentinels running between Rebirth and somewhere north and back as if in a circle

- This happens anywhere with any character, can be replicated from the very beginning of the game.


Save File

- Used Mods: 256 Squad Limit, Kenshicons

- Saved on latest Experimental branch as of date 04.11.2017

- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r15Sv2 ... sp=sharing

I tried again recently, and this bug still persists. I mostly again depopulated Rebirth, but this works anywhere. You stealth KO any Shop Vendor? Say goodbye, you'll never be able to shop there again since the vendor disappears.
You can check as you steal ko people on the map if you hover over the icon of a town / location, the current and max number of residence steadily go down as you go on a stealth ko spree. Interesting bit that I didn't mention in the post before is that after some time of exploring ruins in the southwest, I noticed that the number of residents in Rebirth went up again, but once I got there the guards/soldiers were still gone, so I don't know what that signifies. Again I noticed some NPCs perhaps keep running around at full sprint, as if they were internally removed from the city and now the AI has no idea where the NPC should go so it just runs around, but it might have been something unrelated to this bug.

[Hatsune_Neko]

usually no response means they do not currently need more information or have no news/workarounds for it or is not fixable at this time.

but please continue to post updates if it continues under each new version that comes out.

[drakasin]

Understandable, though this topic might get crowded soon as the bug has been around for at least two years if I am to report it every update, and can confirm that it still happens on 0.98.62

[Hatsune_Neko]

the more info they have
the better.

[Kwikwilyaqa]

Never posted about this, but i had this issue over and over again - the NPCs disappearing. Every time i need to knock down a merchant or other "important" NPC i know that this will result in an import later. The more you use on "relevant" NPCs, more you break your game. This bug is in the game for ages... but never care much because you are kinda forced to import the game from time to time to improve general performance (then "fixing" the NPCs).

[drakasin]

Have you also perhaps noticed some strange NPCs running around at full sprint (by strange I mean out of place)? I noticed some after depopulating Rebirth using Stealth KO (lone sentinels, no squads, one running from rebirth after following all the way to the Floodlands), might've been a coincidence, or it could be that the NPCs perhaps don't disappear completely, but maybe like run around the world or to the edge of the map or something where they can't be found. Very strange indeed, and seems not so easy to fix (posted about it circa year ago and it's still there).